French Open 2019: Training with Roger Federer an 'eye-opener', says Dan Evans
- Published
Dan Evans has offered strong support for the LTA's return to an academy system for Britain's leading juniors
2019 French Open |
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Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 26 May-9 June |
Coverage: Live text and radio commentary on selected matches on the BBC Sport website and app. |
Britain's Dan Evans says his time spent as Roger Federer's training partner has been an "eye-opener to what's being done in our country" in terms of investment and helping young players.
The British number three trained with Federer in Switzerland ahead of his return to clay in Madrid this month.
"I was pretty surprised with how simple a lot of the drills were," said Evans.
"He was so down to earth off the court. It was a bit surreal sometimes - he didn't hide away or anything."
Evans has also been training with British three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray before the French Open, which kicks off on Sunday.
Murray, who admitted he could make a return to Wimbledon to play doubles, has been increasing his training load.
"He was great. He seemed pretty happy - if I'm honest, a bit happier than normal. Hopefully he can come back and get going again," said Evans.
Evans criticised the Lawn Tennis Association's use of analysis following his time with Federer and wants money to be "spread out better" in order to increase the number of British players inside the world's top 300.
"Let's maybe get the basics right, walk before we can run would be good for me," said the 28-year-old. "We need more people [ranked] inside 200-300 before we start having analysis and stuff like that.
"The people who are running performance obviously don't think it's wasted [money], they want to put their money into that. People are using it so it's not wasted but I think it could be spread out a little better.
"In our country you can't be a tennis player when you have no money or you're from a bad area. It's impossible unless your mum and dad remortgage their house. Why should people do that when there's six analysis guys?"
An LTA spokesperson said: "The LTA is committed to opening tennis up and making every stage of being an aspiring pro more accessible. For example, our National Academies will dramatically reduce the cost for our highest potential juniors and we subsidise the coaching of more than 2,000 children at local and another 220 at regional player development centres.
"We are also making a significant annual investment into the charity Tennis First so it can provide financial assistance to families from less privileged backgrounds and enable more children to progress along our Player Pathway."